Perchance to Dream
by TheArc5
Summary: Martha begins dreaming of someone familiar, and she soon discovers that her dreams may be the key to saving reality.
1. Chapter 1

"Run!"

Martha hurtled over a small obstruction and tore down the corridor, the Doctor close behind. She heard the hum of the sonic screwdriver, then, "Left!"

Diving around the corner, Martha paused, sucking in great gasps of air. Her running skills were steadily improving, thanks to this new, life-threatening exercise regime, but the air seemed thicker here, harder to draw in and out. She put her hands on her knees.

"Don't give up on me yet!" the Doctor cried, rounding the corner and flashing her a bracing smile. "We're almost there!"

She took his hand, and together they tore off again. Behind them, the wispy forms of the Kraavin were gathering, hovering in midair like ghosts. Their telepathy plucked at the edges of Martha's mind, and she stumbled, the Doctor yanking at her arm to keep her from falling.

"Close your mind!" he shouted, running even faster. "Think about boxes, doors, gates, anything! Don't let them take you!"

She tried, but the Kraavin, finding the Doctor's mind impenetrable, were focusing their collective energy at her. They tore open her thoughts of boxes and doors, and she screamed, falling to the floor. Desperately, the Doctor heaved her upright, half-carrying her down the next corridor.

"Strangers...must...die..." whispered a hoarse voice that came from Martha, but was not hers. The Doctor supported her weak frame as he shoved open the doors of the TARDIS. Leaning against the door frame, he placed one hand on Martha's forehead and repelled the alien mind. As she blinked at him, he pushed her inside and slammed the door closed.

"Bit of a rough patch there, wasn't it?" he crowed, flying to the the console and taking them into the Vortex. Martha moved to join him, swaying a little. Her head throbbed, and every step brought a fresh wave of nausea with it. Sinking to the grille floor, she wished dimly for aspirin.

"Are you alright?" the Doctor asked, turning from the console to look at her properly.

"I think so," Martha replied. "Got a bit of a headache, though."

"Not surprising. You're not telepathic by nature, and they ripped right through those defenses. We were a few months early...the war was coming to an end. Still, it was a bit of fun, wasn't it?"

Fun was _not_ the first thought in Martha's mind. She kneaded at her forehead.

"If it's alright with you, I think I'll take an aspirin and lie down for a bit," she said, clutching at the railing as the nausea broke over her.

"Ah, yes. Well. Of course." The Doctor seemed a little embarrassed, but he didn't contradict her. Or offer to take her to the infirmary, either, Martha noticed. She grinned in spite of the pain. Typical, that he would be too prideful to admit he had almost gotten her brain sucked up by an alien consciousness. Of course, she had too much pride to admit how badly her head really hurt, so they were sort of even.

"Night," she said, stumbling into her bedroom. It was pleasantly cool and dim, and Martha sank into the bed, forgetting the aspirin entirely. She was asleep within seconds.

_It was a beach. A cold, windy beach. Martha drew her jacket closer around her, shivering as the spray hit her. On a rock only a few yards away, a girl sat, gazing at the writhing ocean. She seemed unperturbed by the cold; in fact, she seemed like she barely registered any feeling at all. Her blonde hair whipped around her face in the wind, and as Martha drew closer, she could see the silver tracks of tears on her cheeks._

_"Who are you?" Martha asked. The girl looked at her, her brown eyes large and knowing and, Martha thought, tired._

_"I don't know," the girl answered slowly. "I was a shopgirl, once. I was the Bad Wolf, once. I remember who I was to him, but I don't think I'm that person anymore."_

_"Who were you to him?" He was irrelevant, Martha knew. Who_ she _was, on the other hand, was terribly important._

_"He called me the defender of Earth," the girl answered softly. "Rose."_


	2. Chapter 2

Martha bolted upright in bed, panting. Rose? His Rose? Martha tossed the quilt aside and paced her small bedroom in her bare feet. She'd never even seen the girl! Not properly. He'd sketched her, when he was human, but...

It was just a dream. Only a dream. Trying to shake off her inexplicable fear, Martha dressed in clean clothes and headed into the console room. The Doctor was pinging away beneath the grille floor, devoid of his suit jacket and tie for once. She flopped into the jump seat and waited for him to notice she was awake. After fifteen minutes, she lost patience.

"I'm fine, thanks. Had a nice sleep. The headache's much better, and that's all right, I'm sure I wouldn't understand what you're doing to the TARDIS anyway. No need to try to explain."

"Oh, hello, Martha. Didn't see you were awake," the Doctor said cheerfully, adjusting his glasses and twisting for a better angle. "Feel better?"

"We've been through this," Martha answered testily. "I wanted to ask you a question."

"What's that, then?"

"Rose. What did she look like?"

The pinging beneath the console ceased instantly. There was a long pause before the Doctor climbed out of the grille floor and took off his glasses, giving Martha a hard look.

"Why would you ask that?" he said carefully, his voice quiet. Martha knew that voice, and despite her irritation, she swallowed.

"I just...I just wondered."

"Ah." The Doctor rubbed the back of his head, looking unconvinced. "She was... She... Well, really, she..."

"What color was her hair?" Martha prompted, taking pity on him.

"Blonde. She dyed it blonde, and she didn't keep it up very well. Her roots were always showing. 'Course, running like we did, not much chance for hair care," the Doctor answered, plunging headfirst into the memory. His eyes were vacant, lost in some other place and time.

"Her eyes?" Martha prodded.

"Brown. So dark...they were endless, her eyes. You could get lost in them. And she had this perfect mouth, beautiful lips. And when she smiled, she stuck her tongue out a little, right between her teeth. Always looked a little wicked."

He grinned a little, then shook himself. "She's gone now. Why do you want to know?"

Martha shook her head. "No reason. Just curious, I guess."

The Doctor didn't answer. He flung himself beneath the console with unwarranted force, and the pinging started again.

_Could have been a bit more tactful, I guess,_ Martha thought, then quietly slipped out of the room.

_It was a beach. A cold, windy beach. Martha drew her jacket closer around her, shivering as the spray hit her. On a rock only a few yards away, a girl sat, gazing at the writhing ocean. She seemed unperturbed by the cold; in fact, she seemed like she barely registered any feeling at all. Her blonde hair whipped around her face in the wind, and as Martha drew closer, she could see the silver tracks of tears on her cheeks._

_"I've seen you before," Martha said._

_"Yes," answered the girl. "You asked who I was."_

_"You're Rose. His Rose."_

_"Do you know him?" Rose asked, looking a bit startled._

_"Yes," answered Martha. "I travel with him." _

_"He's replaced me," Rose whispered._

_"No, no, he hasn't," Martha said quickly, falling to her knees in the sand by the rock without knowing why. "He misses you. He barely knows I'm there. I want him to notice, but he doesn't. You're what he wants. He just...he can't be alone. He can't stand it. He'd go mad. So I stay with him, to look after him."_

_It was the truth, and Martha knew it. Still, it hurt. Why was she doing this, saying all these things? It occurred to her that she should resent this girl, this ghost that had relegated her to an eternal second-best._

_"But you don't," Rose said, intruding on Martha's thoughts. "You should hate me, but you don't. Why?"_

_Martha thought for a moment._

_"I guess... I guess, if he loves you that much, you must deserve it. And it's not really your fault that you're not with him. It hurts him."_

_"But you hurt, too."_

_"Not like he does. I wish he wouldn't look right through me. I wish he cared about me. But I have a family, and friends at home. I could leave him, and have something to go home to. He's alone. Always and forever, alone."_

_"I know."_

_The two of them were silent, Martha kneeling in the sand and Rose huddled on the rock. The waves pounded the beach in a soothing rhythm, a familiar white noise. Suddenly, Martha knew what the sound reminded her of._

_"The waves...they sound like the TARDIS console room when we're in the Vortex."_

_Rose nodded. "That's your dream. To me, they're just waves. I dream of this place because this is where we said goodbye. Bad Wolf Bay."_

_"What do you mean, your dream? You're part of my dream," Martha said, feeling the strange fear rise in her chest._

_"No, Martha. We dream together. Our minds have touched, somehow, and we are sharing this dream. Talking." Rose seemed unperturbed._

_"You're in another universe, and I'm not telepathic. The Doctor said so. How could this be possible?" Martha stood quickly and took a pace backwards. "Who are you?"_

_"Today?" Rose said, and met Martha's eyes. They shone an eerie gold._

_"Today, I am the Bad Wolf."_


	3. Chapter 3

Martha hit the floor with a dull thud. She still felt cold, could still see Rose's golden irises, boring into her with a frightening power.

_"Today, I am the Bad Wolf."_

"Martha! Martha, what is it?" The Doctor sprinted into her room, sonic screwdriver at the ready. It wasn't until she closed her mouth that Martha realized she was screaming.

"Nothing," she croaked. "Just a nightmare."

"Sounded like you were being tortured," the Doctor said, holding out a hand to help her off the floor. He swept the sonic screwdriver over her and looked a little disappointed when nothing happened.

"Just you," he said, putting on his glasses. "No traces of another lifeform, no germs, no viruses, no brain-sucking aliens."

"Told you," Martha said, sitting on the edge of the bed. "Just a nightmare."

"Want to talk about it?" he asked, sitting beside her and pocketing the glasses. Martha fought the urge to laugh. It took all that to get him concerned. She opened her mouth to say 'Rose,' but a whisper in the back of her mind stopped her.

"No," she said instead. "I can't really remember it, just that it scared me."

"Oh," he said, standing. "I see. Well, I could give you something to help you sleep, if you'd like. Prevent any dreams. Of course, dreaming is an interesting phenomenon, such a pity to waste good dreaming time. You know, on the planet..."

"No!" Martha said vehemently, cutting off the impromtu lecture. "No, no, I'm fine."

"Alright," he agreed reluctantly and with a small pout. "'Night."

"'Night," Martha replied to his back. She closed her eyes, trying to forget those golden irises, and sleep claimed her.

_It was a beach. A cold, windy beach. Martha drew her jacket closer around her, shivering as the spray hit her. On a rock only a few yards away, a girl sat, gazing at the writhing ocean. She seemed unperturbed by the cold; in fact, she seemed like she barely registered any feeling at all. Her blonde hair whipped around her face in the wind, and as Martha drew closer, she could see the silver tracks of tears on her cheeks._

_"Rose," Martha snapped, wasting no time. Rose didn't look at her. "Rose!"_

_"I scared you," Rose forced out. Each word seemed torn from her mouth, and when Martha knelt by the rock, she could see Rose's hands. They trembled._

_"Yeah, you did. What is this Bad Wolf stuff? Why did you look like that? And you told me not to tell the Doctor, I know you did. I was going to, but something told me not to. That was you, wasn't it? Please, explain this to me!" Martha reached out and grasped Rose's hand. Rose gasped, staring at Martha in complete shock._

_"You touched me," she whispered in wonder._

_Martha felt a tear run down her face. It was only a touch, but Rose's hand was warm in hers, and she could feel waves of emotion breaking in her mind. They had touched; their minds had touched. Martha could feel love, overwhelming love, compassion, and an iron strength. Underneath all of it, though, was a terrible sense of loss. Rose was lonely._

_"Please, Rose," Martha managed, bringing her other hand up to cup Rose's. "Please tell me."_

_"I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me," Rose began, her eyes never leaving her hands, held tight in Martha's. "The Doctor...he was in trouble. He was going to die, and there was no escape. So he sent me back, back home, to my own time. But I couldn't leave him. I loved him. I wanted him safe. So I opened the TARDIS and took in the Vortex. It burned me, nearly killed me, but I saved him. I rescued him. But then he took the Vortex from me, and he...changed. But he didn't know that I had changed, too. The TARDIS sang to me. It took a long time for me to remember, but I do now. It's been three years for me, in this universe. I come here every year, and I wait for something to happen. This year, I dreamed about you. The TARDIS is helping me talk to you, through this weak spot in the fabric of time."_

_"It happened after the Kraavin," said Martha. "They're a telepathic race, and they invaded my head. It must have been enough to let you in."_

_"Probably," Rose agreed. They were still for a long time, holding each other's hands like a lifeline._

_"I'll come back," Martha said at last._

_"Yes. Don't tell him about me. Not yet. It's not time." Rose met Martha's eyes, and a flood of trust filled Martha's mind._

_"Of course," Martha answered. She could feel her sympathy and encouragement drain into Rose, and for the first time, Martha saw her smile. Just as the Doctor had said, the tip of her tongue peeked from between her teeth._

_"Good night, Martha," Rose said, releasing her hands._

_"Good night, Rose," Martha replied._


	4. Chapter 4

"Martha! You've been asleep for ages, can we get a move on?"

Martha shook her head. The voice was all wrong, deeper and scratchier than...

Rose!

Martha's eyes snapped open, and she sat up. The Doctor leaned against the wall, twirling the sonic screwdriver. "I thought you wanted to meet Marc Antony," he said, looking slightly peeved. "Or are we going to sleep away the next century, mmm?"

"Shut up," Martha groaned, looking at the little clock on her nightstand. It was useless, of course, because of its linear time frame, but it at least told her how long she'd been asleep. "It's only been seven and a half hours! We humans have some sleep requirements, you know!"

The Doctor grimaced. "I do know. Now let's get going! Rome awaits!"

Martha hauled herself out of the bed. It was at least another hour before they actually ventured into ancient Rome, but even Marc Antony couldn't completely distract her. All she could think about was Rose. Remnants of emotion were floating around in her head, and there were moments Martha felt like doing something completely out of character. Winking at Marc Antony, what was she thinking? And at the end of the day, when she and the Doctor headed back for the TARDIS, she felt an irresistible urge to...ruffle his hair?

Before she could stop herself, she ran her fingers through it, throwing the spikes into chaos.

"Oi!" the Doctor shouted, grabbing at her arm. But, with another instinct that wasn't hers, Martha twisted, dodging his grasp, and ran for the TARDIS, laughing.

She ran around the console, hiding behind the jump seat. He walked through behind her, closing the door with an agonized slowness. Ignoring Martha entirely, he flipped a few switches and took them into the Vortex. After a moment, Martha came out, the smile sliding from her face.

"You're not angry, are you?"

A long pause followed. He didn't meet her eyes.

"She used to do that. Rose. Whenever I looked too serious. Which wasn't often, but..."

Martha swallowed, hard. How was she going to explain this? It had been Rose, Martha knew, but how to tell him?

_It's not time._

"I'm...sorry. I don't know what came over me," she whispered at last.

"Don't apologize. Ever. Come on, then, where to next?"

He returned to his facade of hyperactive babble about planets and destinations and cultures, but for the first time, Martha saw it for what it was: a facade. She had rattled him, badly. But, at a loss for anything better to do, Martha listened while he chattered, laughing and agreeing at the appropriate times. It wasn't until she escaped to her room that she let the smile slide from her face. She needed to talk to Rose.

She crawled into bed, waiting for the sleep that came so easily lately. Nothing happened. Martha tried to force herself to relax. She thought of beaches, of waves. She thought of Rose.

Nothing.

Closing her eyes, Martha mentally searched for those instincts that weren't hers, those thoughts and feelings that didn't belong to her. Concentrating, she even thought _at_ Rose.

_"Winking at Marc Antony? Flirt!"_

Nothing.

Martha opened her eyes, frowning. All day, ever since she'd touched Rose on the beach, she'd been able to feel her. They didn't share minds, exactly, but there was a mode of contact that hadn't been there before. Martha had been able to feel Rose's amusement, her whims, her excitement, a warm presence that never entirely went away. Now, though...now...

Nothing.

Maybe it didn't stay for long, Martha reasoned. Maybe the contact couldn't be maintained. Still, she concentrated harder.

_"Rose? Rose?"_

She repeated the name like a mantra, over and over again. After a while, the gentle hum of the TARDIS seemed to echo her thoughts.

_"Rose. Rose. Rose."_

_**"I am the Bad Wolf."**_

_There was no beach, no wind, no waves. Only darkness. Martha reached out, trying to feel her way through the emptiness, but her fingers touched nothing and her legs refused to move._

_"Rose!" she screamed, but the sound died in her throat. The darkness filled everything, filled Martha, and she couldn't see or scream or breathe..._

_She would die here, buried in the darkness._

_"You're not going to die. Hold my hand."_

_Martha felt a hand slip into hers. The hand was hot, burning, but Martha clung to it, desperate to _feel_. Slowly, warmth flowed up her arm and through her chest, spreading through her body until she felt full of light. A great force pulled at her body, and when she came to, she was on the familiar beach again. She was sprawled on the ground, the wind flinging sand into her face, but the warmth remained. She suddenly realized that Rose was holding her tight, abandoning her usual post on the rock._

_"Rose?"_

_"I'm here, Martha. I'm here."_

_"What was that place?"_

_Rose didn't answer. She helped Martha sit up, brushed the sand from her hands, then took Martha's hands as before. Martha tilted her face to catch Rose's eyes and stared into swirling pools of gold._

_"You tried to reach me. You shouldn't do that, you're not strong enough." Rose's voice was distant, full of a terrible power._

_"I wanted to talk to you." Martha felt stupid just saying it. She sounded like a three-year-old, for heaven's sake._

_"I know. I stayed in your mind too long; I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry."_

_"You wanted to see him, didn't you?"_

_Rose said nothing. A drop of molten gold rolled down her cheek, and Martha gently brushed it away._

_"It's okay, you know," Martha said quietly. "I'd want it, too. I didn't mind."_

_"You tried to pass through the Void," Rose answered. "You might have died."_

_"You saved me, though, so no harm done, right?" Martha gripped Rose's hands, suddenly limp in hers. A wave of despondency brushed against her mind, but didn't enter. Rose was fighting to control her thoughts._

_"What's wrong, Rose?"_

_"I can't keep this up. I have to let go of you." Rose's voice was flat, emotionless, but the eerie tone had passed. She sounded human again. _

_"I've been asleep all day, dreaming of Rome, of you. I woke up when you got back to the TARDIS, but I could feel you hit the Void. I passed out trying to get to you. I'm still unconscious in the bungalow on the beach. If I keep up the contact, I'll go into a coma. Then die, I suppose. I'm not sure. I just know that we can't keep doing this. It's dangerous for both of us."_

_"And I'll never see you again?" Martha felt a little panicked. The dreams had become precious to her, and the touch of Rose's mind, while unfamiliar, was so intimate that the prospect of losing it was dreadful._

_"I don't know. Maybe next year, I'll dream of you again." Rose smiled, and the gold in her eyes faded to brown._

_"I'll miss you," Martha whispered. Four dreams, and even she was languishing over Rose. This girl definitely had a way with people._

_"You're right, I do," Rose grinned._

_"You're much better at this mind-reading stuff than I am, I think," Martha grinned back. Rose pulled Martha into a hug, and they held onto each other for a long time. When they pulled apart at last, Martha bit her lip._

_"Do you want me to tell him?"_

_"No," Rose said quietly. "I don't think it would help. I got to see him. That's enough."_

_"He loves you, you know."_

_"Yeah. I do."_

_Martha's vision was blurring. The dream was getting hard to hold onto._

_"I'm waking up," Rose said breathlessly. "Goodbye, Martha!"_

_"Rose!"_

Martha's hands hit the TARDIS wall. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying desperately not to cry. It was useless.

She barely knew her, and now she had lost Rose, too.


	5. Chapter 5

Martha stared at the hands of her little bedside clock. The Doctor thought she was asleep; as long as she kept quiet, he should leave her alone for at least five more hours. She padded across her room, silent on her bare feet. Getting caught would be an awful idea.

It took her nearly a quarter of an hour to get to Rose's room. She'd never gone in intentionally before, choosing instead to give it a wide berth. The Doctor had kept it the same since Rose had left, she knew that much. He went there sometimes, when he thought Martha was busy enough not to notice. She'd hated that.

But that was before. Martha slipped inside the dim room, mentally bemoaning the TARDIS's lack of proper doors. As long as she was quiet...

She stood still for a moment, taking in the room. There were bunches of dried roses, tied with ribbon, hanging haphazardly on the walls. The duvet was pink. _He must have thrown a fit about that,_ Martha thought, smoothing the silky coverlet. A small stuffed bear holding a plastic snail had been shoved between the bed and the wall. She picked it up and smoothed its fur.

_Wonder where this came from?_ she mused, then stuffed the bear back into its hiding place. She turned to the closet. A duffel was thrown in the corner, and a few articles of clothing were hanging on the rack. Martha pressed her face to a shirt, but there was no hint of perfume, no scent to suggest someone had once worn it. It didn't even smell like detergent, just the TARDIS wardrobe. Martha sighed and put it back.

She poked beneath the bed. There was a cardboard box of paperback romance novels, not all of them of terrestrial origin. Martha grinned widely, handling the books. She'd read some of these. _The Aristocrat's Lady_...now that was a particularly raunchy one. She flipped through the pages and nearly choked over page 114. Rose had marked it in black ink, with a note at the top that said "For Emergency Use Only." Martha slid the box back with a mental note to come here if she ever needed some mindless entertainment. The TARDIS library was impressive, but there wasn't much by way of "emergency" reading.

She quietly opened the bedside table drawer. Inside was a treasure trove of hard candies and candy wrappers. It looked like Rose was collecting them; there was a little box half-covered with them and a pot of glue in the corner. Martha opened the box, careful not to damage the glue-coated wrappers. Inside were a few pebbles and a small string of plastic beads. She closed the box and put it down. Closing the drawer, she suddenly noticed a pale blue envelope sticking out of a pile of sweets. She carefully slid it out of the drawer. On the front of the envelope in looping script were the words, "To the Doctor's New Companion, from Rose."

Martha tucked the envelope inside her shirt and crept back to her room.

Martha pulled the duvet over her head and clicked on the torch. She felt a bit like a naughty schoolgirl, but she didn't want to risk the Doctor knowing she was still awake. One-handed, she unfolded the letter, written on blue stationery, and began to read.

_To the Doctor's new companion,_

_Hi! My name is Rose. I don't know if the Doctor has told you about me or not. If he has, you can skip on a bit. If not, I'm a girl that used to travel with him. He blew up the shop where I worked, and after, I decided to go with him. We had a lot of adventures together. I'm writing this while I'm still with him, so I can't really tell you why I'm not there now. Maybe I got old, and had to go home. Maybe I died. Maybe I chose to go home, but I don't really think so. You can ask him, I suppose. Anyway, if I'm still alive when you're reading this, you can look me up: Rose Tyler, former time traveler. The Doctor can probably help you find me, if you need help._

_I just wanted to tell you a few things about traveling with the Doctor. I've told him that I'll stay with him forever, but I know that can't really happen. He's old...really old. Older than I'll ever be. And someday, I'm going to die, whether it's in one of our adventures or just by getting old. I hope he finds someone to take my place, though. He needs somebody. That's the most important thing I have to say. If you're with him now, please take care of him. He tries to be all tough and hard, and he pretends like he doesn't need anybody. And he's a genius, so he could probably survive pretty much anything. But he gets really lonely. His people, they're all dead and gone now. He doesn't have anybody left. And he sees lots of terrible things; he tries to save everyone, but he can't. Not all the time. So, if you're with him, please try to take care of him. Hold his hand wherever you go together, so he knows he isn't alone. Hug him if something good happens, so he knows that you're proud of him. And when he gets depressed, and he doesn't talk, make him tea. Two sugars. That usually helps. Just let him know that you care about him. If you're traveling with him, I know you do._

_Here's a few things you should really know:_

_Don't try to figure out the TARDIS. It's alive, so think good thoughts about it sometimes, and the water in the shower will be hotter. If you get mad at it, though, it'll make the water cold. But don't try to drive or anything, because it only works for the Doctor. If you get lost, just think really hard about where you need to go, and the TARDIS will help you. The library's a great place to go and think, but the books aren't very exciting. I hid some romance novels behind the set of Repmek encyclopedias, though, if you want them._

_Watch out for the TARDIS laundry. It's kind of hard to figure out. NEVER use the red soap, and don't turn the dial to hyper-wash. It'll ruin your clothes._

_If the Doctor starts running around in circles, it means he's been into the jelly babies again. Try to hide those._

_You'll be running a lot with the Doctor, so go to the wardrobe room and get some good trainers. It'll be a matter of life and death someday._

_I think that's about it. There's lots of things to learn, but it's more fun to find out for yourself. Traveling with the Doctor is the best thing I ever did, and I hope it's just as fantastic for you. Just do me a favor and look out for him. He needs somebody to do that. And if you have the courage, tell him you love him. Somehow, I just can't work up the nerve to say that. I think he knows, though. Maybe you'll be braver than me. Loving him hurts sometimes, but he's so worth it. And if you ever need me, and I'm still around, any friend of the Doctor's is a friend of mine._

_Good luck!_

_Rose_

Martha clicked off the torch and pushed the letter inside her pillowcase. Rose had loved the Doctor enough to want him to have someone, even if that couldn't be her. She angrily brushed away her tears. Rose _deserved_ forever. It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair.

She giggled to herself through her tears. She had resented Rose for so long, and now, she wished Rose could take her place. Talk about irony.

Snuggling into her pillow, Martha closed her eyes and thought into the darkness, knowing Rose couldn't hear.

_I'll do my best, Rose. I'll try to take care of him for you._

She closed her eyes, and eventually, sleep claimed her. There were no dreams.


	6. Chapter 6

Martha swore and doubled back down the corridor. Emriil rebels were pouring in from both ends now, she'd lost the Doctor, and to top it all off, she just happened to be carrying an infant. Come to think of it, she should probably cut down on the swearing.

"Sorry, Ilvana," she said conversationally to the little girl. Ilvana dribbled on her with equal friendliness. Martha shifted Ilvana higher on her hip and ducked into the nearest doorway. Bolting the door behind her, she hurriedly searched the room for a place to hide, or barring that, a weapon. She'd wandered into a storage room of some sort, mostly full of food. There wasn't even so much as a ventilation shaft to climb into. It was turning out to be a rough morning.

"Doctor, where are you?" she hissed into the empty room. How did he think of ways to escape these situations?

"Ma," said Ilvana, discovering the TARDIS key hanging around Martha's neck. Martha could hear the rebels searching rooms, and panic started to set in. She wouldn't let them have Ilvana; she wouldn't. But they were getting closer.

Strike that...they were here.

"Aha! So, we're all together, then!" The Doctor's manic cheerfulness wasn't helping. Martha hoped he had some sort of plan to get them both out of execution, but she knew he was probably just making everything up as he went along.

"Make her stop!" bellowed the rebel captain. Ilvana, abruptly deprived of Martha and her shiny TARDIS key, was making her displeasure plain. She'd been screaming at the top of her lungs for fifteen minutes and showed no signs of tiring. Even Martha, who had a soft spot for the child, was getting irritated.

"I can make her stop," she said loudly. Ilvana reached for her and screamed all the louder. "Please! Just let me take her!"

The captain growled in a fit of indecision, but at last motioned for Martha to be released. She took Ilvana, who immediately stopped screaming, and shot the Doctor a worried glance. What now?

The rebels continued with their preparations. Apparently, on Emri, prisoners were traditionally executed by fire, and whatever the Doctor had done in Martha's absence had warranted an extra-large one. One of the rebels leered at the Doctor as he passed, waving a branch threateningly. The Doctor smiled sanguinely.

Wait a minute. Why wasn't he babbling on about something? Sanguine smiling generally wasn't part of the escape plan. And why wouldn't he look at her? She followed his line of vision and the penny dropped.

Oh. That.

Mentally apologizing to Ilvana, Martha pinched one chubby leg. The wailing was instantaneous. Making soothing noises, Martha began to pace, bouncing Ilvana and rubbing her back. One round...two rounds... She was getting closer to the wall, closer...

She couldn't help but be pleased when she retrieved the whittling knife without attracting attention. Now, it was just round four, and as she neared the Doctor, she deftly slit the ropes that held his wrists. He took the knife from her without moving, and she took a step to the left. The next thing she knew, the Doctor had the knife at her throat.

"I want the girl and the child," he growled menacingly. Martha whimpered and Ilvana started to sob. The captain started up an impressive evil monologue and the Doctor retaliated with one of his own. Martha wasn't listening. She knew that the entire routine was really just another form of haggling. The Doctor had better be good at it; the rebels had worked hard to kidnap the crown princess of Emri, and they weren't going to let her go easily.

"Oh, you've already made your fatal mistake," she heard the Doctor say. "Because I've already told the royal family where you are."

The knife withdrew, and Martha breathed easy once again. She could hear the confusion as the royal soldiers subdued the rebels, and someone from a long way off asked her if she was alright, but it was getting harder to focus. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Someone gently took Ilvana from Martha's arms. Someone was saying her name, but she couldn't see them. Her vision blurred, and when the Doctor grabbed her arms, she felt only the faintest of touches.

_I need you, Martha._

She knew that voice! Martha's mind was flooded with the images of the rocky beach, the slate grey ocean, and Rose.

_Rose..._

The Doctor caught Martha just before she hit the floor.

_It was a beach. A cold, windy beach. Martha drew her jacket closer around her, shivering as the spray hit her. A blonde girl was sprinting towards her, impervious to the cold. Martha ran to her._

_"Rose!" she cried, pulling her into a tight embrace. "It's been so long. Months."_

_"Martha, you have to listen to me," Rose said, stepping away from Martha, but keeping a tight hold on her hands. "Something's gone wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. My world...my universe... It's collapsing, Martha. I need your help."_

_"What can I do?"_

_"I need you to tell him about your dreams. He is telepathic, and he can share them with you. This is something that I can't fix on my own, and we have to do something fast. We need him."_

_Martha nodded anxiously, and Rose smiled at her. "Don't be afraid."_

_"I am, though. I'm worried about you."_

_"Martha, I've seen the end of the world more times than I can count. We'll get through this. We just need him to do it."_

_Martha nodded again. "I understand."_

_"Then wake up, Martha Jones. Wake up..."_

"Come on, Martha. Wake up."

Martha groaned, her head pounding. The Doctor waved some device in her face, and the pain receded.

"Martha? Can you hear me?"

Suddenly, Martha remembered her charge. Rose needed the Doctor, now. Hang the headache.

"Doctor?"

"I'm here, Martha."

"Yes, I can see that," she said, sitting up and swinging her legs over the edge of the examination table. There was no time for pleasantries. The infirmary swayed a little in her vision, but the examination table was far too small for both of them.

"Martha! Just lie down, Martha. You fainted, back on Emri. I brought you back here because nothing we could do there would wake you up. Something's wrong, Martha." Exasperated, he tried to force her back to the table.

"Oh, you don't know the half of it," Martha snapped. Grabbing his wrist, she pulled him into the TARDIS corridors.

"There isn't time to explain," she said, stumbling into her bedroom. The Doctor steadied her, and she managed to make it to the bed. "Come on."

The Doctor looked puzzled and slightly amused. "If you're trying to proposition me, Martha, your technique leaves quite a lot to be desired."

"Not everything is about sex, you know! I need you to share my dreams. Just do it!" He opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. "I don't care about your scruples, and there isn't time. Just do it, now."

"Fine, fine. If you think it's so necessary." He was humoring her, but Martha didn't care. She closed her eyes and felt the soft collapse of the mattress as he joined her on the bed. His fingers were cool on her forehead, and Martha reached out with her mind.

_Help me._

_It was a beach. A cold, windy beach. Martha drew her jacket closer around her, shivering as the spray hit her._

_"Unpleasant, yes, but hardly something to panic about, Martha," the Doctor quipped from her right. She said nothing, merely stared at him. He broke eye contact and skimmed the horizon. She could see the exact moment he realized where he was._

_"How do you know about this place?" he nearly shouted, grabbing her by the arms. "Why did you bring me here?"_

_"She didn't. I did."_

_The Doctor froze. Slowly, infinitely slowly, he released Martha and turned to look at Rose._

_"It's just a dream. I've had this same dream a thousand times, and you're no closer to being real." His voice was soft now, broken. "It's just a dream."_

_Rose came closer to him and slipped her hand into his. He gasped, falling to his knees on the sand. Rose fell with him, holding him while her thoughts poured into his mind._

_"You can't be...it's..."_

_"But I am. And I need you now, more than I ever have before. I need you to listen to me."_

_Together, they stood, still holding hands. Rose reached out and took Martha's hand as well. Martha sneaked a glance at the Doctor's face; she'd never seen him cry before._

_"Time and space are unravelling," Rose began. "It's up to us to stop it."_


	7. Chapter 7

_"Rose..." His voice sounded as if his very soul was shattered. "Rose."_

_But it wasn't Rose. Martha could feel the difference, the subtle shift as the golden power swept into Rose's mind. Rose's eyes flared into brilliant light, and Martha could feel the heat that had drawn her from the Void. It was terrifying._

_"There isn't time," said the Rose-who-was-not-Rose. The Doctor dropped her hand and fell back a pace, and Martha saw something she'd never seen before: there was fear in his eyes._

_"This can't be! I took this from you! I saved you from this!" He half-reached for her and stopped. "Rose, what's happened?"_

_"I created myself. Did you undo what was done? No. You merely took the excess of power. You didn't kill the Wolf."_

_Martha whimpered. The fragments of the Rose she knew, the kindness and compassion and love, were shivering in her mind, succumbing to this ancient and terrible light. The hand she held was burning, and before she could stop herself, Martha felt tears well up in her eyes. The eyes of the Bad Wolf met hers, and something changed. Rose got stronger._

_"Something came; something terrible. They're like the Reapers, but they're not the same. They cause chaos, ripping and killing. There isn't even time to bury the dead. Fires burn high at night, and I can't put them out."_

_There it was: fear, pain. Concern for those still alive, grief for the dead. Humanity. Martha gripped Rose's hand tighter._

_"It's you. It must be you," the Doctor said, reaching out for Rose's hand. "This power shouldn't be contained like this. You should be dead. But you protect yourself. You're a paradox thrust into another universe, another Time Vortex, and it's unravelling the fabric of the universe. Oh, Rose... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."_

_His voice caught, and Martha could see the wet trails of tears on his face. Rose leveled him a look._

_"How do we stop it?"_

_We. Us. Together. The golden light was wreaking havoc in Martha's head, spilling over into her. Rose was in her head and she wasn't Rose and she couldn't hold on and the fires burned brighter._

_"There isn't a way! This has never happened before, it isn't meant to happen! I can't stop it!" He was shouting now, screaming over the light that held the human Rose captive._

_A captive that wields a sword, Martha thought, and the fires burned brighter._

_"Rose, you'll burn!"_

_Oh, no, Martha thought. Not her. Not alone. Together, we'll all burn. Together._

_**"Martha, let go of the light."**_

_But she couldn't. Not anymore. The fires burned, brighter and brighter._

_He wasn't the answer. She was. The light flared, and she knew._

_She shuddered, let go of Rose's hand, and embraced the Doctor, swimming in a pool of light._

_"Martha, don't!"_

She opened her eyes. The Doctor lay beside her, panting, tears still flowing down his cheeks.

"She was real, Martha. She was real. I thought I had saved her..."

Martha rolled over, facing him, and threw her arm over him. He let himself be pulled close to her, and Martha draped her leg over his, holding him tight. He clung to her, allowing himself to drown in his grief, and Martha held him. Time passed, unheeded by the pair on the bed. At last, the Doctor slid away from Martha and stood.

"I'm...I'm sorry," he said, his face red from more than crying. "I shouldn't have... I don't want you to think..."

"No," Martha said softly, rising from the bed. "I know. You just needed to know you weren't alone, and that's the only way I knew how to show you that you weren't."

"Right." He scrubbed his face with one hand and tried to gather some sense of normalcy. "We have to help her."

"I thought you said there wasn't a way?"

"I thought a lot of things that were wrong. We have to at least try. We can't leave her to... Still, I don't know where to begin. Come on, let's see what we can find in the library."

Martha followed him, letting him ramble on about books she'd never heard of. He didn't know; he hadn't seen.

She closed her eyes and tentatively prodded her own mind. She found what she was looking for. Fear mounting, she hurried to follow him to the library.

At the back of her mind, the fires still burned.


	8. Chapter 8

"Martha, it doesn't help if you don't read them." Martha looked up from the large stack of books she was flipping through.

"I'm a med student, Doctor. I am reading them, just more quickly and more efficiently than you are."

"You are not! You can't be!" he said indignantly, adjusting his glasses.

"Oh, really?" She held up a thick volume. "Chapters one through five are philosophical arguments over the meaning of paradoxes. We don't care about their meanings. Chapters five through seventeen are about known instances of various paradoxes and their effects on the known universe. Slightly helpful, perhaps, but even though the Meherana Paradox was the closest thing we have to the situation with Rose, nobody's ever imbibed the entire Vortex in one go, then been thrown into a parallel universe, thereby creating, in fragments at least, two Vortices at the same time. So...not so helpful, then. Chapters seventeen through twenty-four aren't about actual paradoxes at all, just the possibility of paradoxes and how to avoid creating one. Ergo...one very boring book read. On to the next."

He gave her a half-smile of wonder. "Martha Jones, you just lectured me. That's...incredible. How did you do that?"

"Like I said...med student. If you were forced to read half the texts we've got to go through, you'd learn how to do this, too."

"I'll have to try that sometime." He flipped through a sheaf of Gallifreyan treatises on the nature of parallel universes. "We're not getting anywhere with this."

"No, we're not." Martha closed her book and stood, wincing as the blood returned to her legs.

"Trouble is, what do we do differently?" He threw the papers, which scattered in a satisfying rain. "What do we do?"

_**We sleep. We dream. We must be together.**_

Fire coursed through Martha's synapses, and as she screamed, she could taste stardust.

_"What happened to our beach, Rose?"_

_They stood in a blank white room, the monotony broken only by the support struts on two opposite walls._

_"We're standing on the edge of the Void. This is where it all happened; this is where the walls closed first. They're tearing open again, now." Rose turned from the blank wall. There was no hint of the Bad Wolf, only a deep sadness._

_But Martha could feel the fires raging, and knew her own eyes burned gold._

_"Martha?"_

_"Not today."_

_Rose reached out a hand and lightly caressed Martha's cheek. Her fingers were cool, drawing the heat, and the fires receded._

_"Oh, Martha," Rose said, pain in her voice. "What have I done to you?"_

"No, no no no no, _no_!" The Doctor gathered Martha's limp body in his arms and tried to reach her mind with his. "Come on, Martha, don't do this to me..."

The rejection was so strong, he flew backwards, hitting a bookshelf and bringing a shower of books on top of him. Undeterred, he crawled back to Martha and took her in his arms again.

"What do I do? Tell me! Tell me what to do!"

Silence was his only answer. He rocked Martha back and forth helplessly. Rose was too strong; if Martha was pulled in too far, he would lose them both.

"Please, Martha," he begged into the silence. "Please..."

He didn't even know what he was asking for. He held her tighter, and she whimpered.

She was dreaming.

_"It burns, Rose. It burns."_

_Martha was crying, every tear melting in to her skin. She could see it: the stars and galaxies, living and dying all at once. Life and death in their endless dance, giving and taking in due measure. Time, unfurling in endless circles, not the straight lines she was taught. Time was a rose in bloom, and she could touch it._

_Rose's hands slipped into hers, cool and comforting._

_"You can see it, can't you?" _

_Rose flared into golden light. They were together, in the midst of the swirling fires of time; they were the same._

_"Let go of it, Martha. Let it go."_

_Martha shook her head, scattering stars like cinders. "I won't leave you alone. I won't let you burn alone."_

_"It doesn't work that way, Martha. This universe is collapsing, and it's my fault. I'll burn, and they'll burn with me, because there's nowhere to run to. You have to let go."_

_"No, I don't. You chose him, and I choose you. I won't leave you."_

_Rose's hands tightened. "Martha, you must."_

_"I know what to do, Rose. I know." The light flared, and tears flowed like molten gold. "Would you tell my family that I love them?"_

_"Martha..." Rose wrapped her arms around her, and Martha held on tight, the two of them becoming a single flame. It was Martha who separated them, stepped back and drew the light into herself._

_"Martha! Martha, you can't!" Rose was sobbing, reaching out, and Martha smiled._

_"Don't be afraid, Rose."_

_And embracing the light, Martha flung out her hands._

Martha's body burned with fever. Nothing he could do made any difference. The Doctor flung aside his instruments in frustration and took her in his arms.

"If you die, Martha Jones, I'll never forgive you," he said. There was no answer. The TARDIS lights flickered, and he glanced up. "Now what?"

He turned his attention back to Martha and nearly dropped her. She was glowing.

"Martha!" He shouted at her, shook her, and it made no difference. She wouldn't wake up, and now, her body was fading.

"What?"

He shook his head, willing his eyes to be wrong. Fading? Corporeal bodies didn't just fade away! He tried to hold on to her, but she was disappearing, like a ghost.

"Martha! This is just mad! Martha!"

She was gone. The Doctor looked around stupidly, as if she were playing some sort of practical joke.

"Martha?"

No one answered.

She was _gone_.


	9. Chapter 9

The Doctor swore and leapt up, pacing the library. She couldn't have just disappeared; there had to be a logical explanation. He ran his hands through his hair in frustration. He was missing something, something...

He scanned the area where she had been with the sonic screwdriver. Nothing. Not even residual energy to indicate transport of some kind. The TARDIS hummed in consternation.

"I know, I know!" the Doctor shouted back, increasing the speed of his pacing. "This shouldn't happen; she can't have just vanished. There's got to be something else!"

The TARDIS hummed louder, her telepathic link nagging at his mind. It was about the equivalent of someone tugging at his sleeve.

"What do you want me to do?" he snapped. "I didn't do this on purpose, you know! I'm trying to bring her back, I just don't know how!"

"Talking to the TARDIS. It has to be you."

The Doctor whipped around and dropped the sonic screwdriver. Rose was standing in the entrance to the library, clutching at a bookshelf for support. She smiled at him weakly.

"Is this another dream, then? Did she put me inside another dream?" She lurched toward him, and her knees buckled. Finding his feet, the Doctor lunged to catch her.

"I can touch you," she whispered. "If this is a dream, it's wonderful."

"It's...it's not," the Doctor stammered, sinking to the floor with her in his arms. "It's not a dream, and I don't know how it isn't, but it isn't, Rose, it isn't..."

She buried her face in his chest and he rocked her, holding her as if he could never let go again.

"Promise?" she said at last, peering up from the safety of his arms. "Promise it isn't a dream?"

"I promise, Rose," he answered, brushing the hair from her forehead. "I'm real, and so are you. You're here. You're back."

Rose dropped her eyes, thinking furiously. "She...she sent me back."

"What?" The Doctor dragged his attention from the wonderful, impossible vision of Rose's tear-streaked face and actually listened. "She?"

"Martha!" Rose cried. She slid out of the Doctor's embrace and stood, panic written in every line of her body. "She took it from me, the power of the Wolf. Our minds had touched, and it bled into her. She took it from me, all of it, and then..."

She stared at the floor as if trying to remember. "The Void. She used the Wolf to push me through the Void. The TARDIS must have pulled me in."

The Doctor shook his head. "It can't be. That...that would kill you, Rose."

Rose met his eyes. "She took my place, didn't she?"

There was a long, tense silence. The Doctor stared at Rose, and she stared back, but despite some intense mental acrobatics, the Doctor couldn't come up with another explanation.

"Rose," he asked quietly. "How powerful is the Wolf?"

"I don't know," Rose whispered, tears welling up in her eyes. "Powerful enough to destroy a universe. Is this such a stretch?"

The Doctor shrugged. "There's no precedent. Nobody has ever done what you did. I have no idea what that kind of power can or cannot do. Martha's gone, and you're here..."

He leapt up and began pacing, raking his hands through his hair. "You brought Jack back to life when he was dead, and you reduced the Daleks to atoms. Think, think! If Martha absorbed the energy, absorbed whatever you were, are, then she could do the same things, she might have...she could have...Rose, that's it!

"What's it?"

"You said it: she took your place. She's holding the power of the Wolf. She used the power to send you back here, because the universe was falling apart because of the intrusion of your paradox. Here, though, you're still a paradox, but a safe one, because the Wolf was formed from our time stream!"

"But the Wolf is still there, in that reality," Rose said softly. "They're still dying."

"I know. I know," he said, taking her hands and looking into her eyes. "But now I know how to save them."

_She could feel the universe collapsing. Its endless gyre was closing in on itself, closing in on her; time was unravelling, and to stop it, space was going to collapse into a black hole with her at the center._

_Through it all, Martha burned._

_She'd done it; she'd pushed Rose through the Void. With that terrifying energy, she'd burned a hole from one world to the next and decimated them both to atoms, changed their places, and rebuilt them._

_It had hurt._

_But she had done it. The fires raged and the universe swallowed itself whole, but she had made a way for it all to end. She just hoped that Rose could figure it out in time._

_I need you, Rose, Martha thought, and even the thought burned gold._

They lay close together, touching as much as they could. He lifted a hand to her temple and paused, frowning.

"I never said it."

Rose smiled up at him. "It's okay. I know."

"No, no, it isn't. I want...I want to say it. In case I don't have another chance." He drew in a deep breath. "Rose Tyler, I...I love you."

Her smile widened. "Say it again."

"I lo..." His words were swallowed as she pressed her mouth to his. He groaned, drinking her in, and she melted into him, as if trying to fit under his very skin. For a moment, nothing else mattered; then, he pulled away.

"Time...there's never enough time."

"There would be, if you didn't waste it so much," she quipped, and settled her head on his shoulder, ready.

"Doctor? I love you, too."

"Rose," he breathed, and lightly touching her temple, he plunged them both into dreams.

_Nothing existed but the flame. On and on it went, devouring time and space together, and Martha was at its center. Death was in the flame; death was the only recourse. She closed her eyes to die._

_"Martha!"_

_A wave of hope entered her mind, fighting back the flame. She knew that voice... There had been a beach, where something terrible had happened... Why couldn't she remember?_

_"Martha..." Another voice, also familiar. A man, this time. His people were dead, she remembered, but he didn't die. He couldn't die. He changed. Remembering was so hard..._

_A hand slipped into hers, and Martha gasped. Her mind was filled with thoughts of Rose._

_"Rose," she whispered. "You came back. You came back for me."_

_"I won't let you burn," Rose promised. The light was leaving Martha, draining into Rose. The fires were dying. Time stood still._

_Then time flowed backwards, making everything that was broken whole again._

_Rose spoke, her eyes bright with the power of the Wolf._

_**"Come. We will return together."**_

_"She can't, Rose. She can't come with us." The Doctor's voice was somber. "She took your place, and if she leaves as well, the universe will continue to collapse. Her presence heals the paradox; without her, just ripping the paradox away... It would be like the universe bleeding to death. She's covering the wound you made, and because she's not a paradox, she can stay. She can save everyone."_

_The last of the power drained away from Martha and she stepped back._

_"He's right. I remember. I read it in a book; the Wolf showed me. I can't go back."_

_"I don't want to leave you," Rose whispered. Her voice echoed, but her words were human, all Rose. Martha touched her cheek._

_"Dream of me, sometimes."_

_She turned to the Doctor, and he pulled her into a tight hug. _

_"Martha Jones," he whispered to her. "You saved the world, the universe, and you brought her back to me. I can never thank you enough for that, you know. I'll never forget you."_

_Martha pulled back and smiled at him. "I'll never forget you, either."_

_Rose drew in a sharp breath. __**"There's not much time."**_

_"I know." Martha embraced Rose and felt the heat of the Wolf beneath her skin. "I'm glad I met you, Rose."_

_Rose flared with light, and Martha stepped back for the last time._

_"I'm glad I met you, Martha Jones."_

_"Goodbye," Martha whispered._

_The light disappeared into Rose, and then everything went black._


	10. Chapter 10

_"Rose."_

Rose awoke with a jolt. The voice had been a whisper, but it had a ring of familiarity about it. She sat up, listening hard in the dark.

_"Rose."_

Beside her, the Doctor stirred and half-sat, leaning his weight on his elbow.

"Rose? You okay?" he whispered. She barely heard him; she was listening for a different voice.

_"Rose."_

"Fine," she answered, lying back and letting him gather her in his arms. "Everything's fine."

"Go back to sleep," he murmured into her hair.

In the dark, Rose smiled. That was exactly what she had in mind.

_It was a beach. A cold, windy beach. And Rose knew every inch of it, every wave that broke along the shore, every breeze. She settled on her rock and waited. It didn't take long before she heard that familiar voice._

_"Rose."_

_"Martha."_

_She left her rock and embraced Martha, letting their minds flow together. Waves of emotion rocked between them, love, contentment, trust, pain, loss. They held on to each other until they could no longer distinguish whose feelings belonged to whom. Only then did they step back and sit together in the sand. Rose took Martha's hand._

_"How long has it been for you?" she asked._

_"A year. You said that you came back to Norway every year, and that's where I am now. I fell asleep thinking about you, and I guess it was enough. How long has it been for you?"_

_"Eight months. I'm asleep in the TARDIS."_

_"By yourself?" Martha asked, raising her eyebrows. Rose laughed._

_"No. I think he's afraid to let me out of his sight. It'd annoy me, except I feel the same way about him, so I guess we're even."_

_"Good. All he ever did was moan about you being gone, and if he found some way to screw up you coming back..." She let the sentence trail off, shaking her head. "I'd have to telepathically kick him."_

_Rose snorted. "So would I. What about you? Seeing anybody?"_

_Martha rolled her eyes. "It's complicated. Nothing's official, but ever since I started work at Torchwood, I'm fairly sure that Mickey and Jake are actually fighting over me. Which is nice, because I never have to pay for coffee, but there's this other guy that I really like. Owen."_

_"Owen?" Rose asked incredulously. "He's so...cocky."_

_"Well, he was," Martha answered coyly. "Until he dumped his tea all over his lap trying to impress me. I think he's cute."_

_Rose shook her head. "As long as you're happy. I mean...are you? Happy?"_

_"Yeah," Martha said, suddenly fighting back tears. "Yeah, I think I am. I miss... I miss...them."_

_Rose knew exactly who "they" were._

_"I told them. I went, just like you asked. Your mother slapped me, actually."_

_Martha smiled, holding her tears at bay a little longer._

_"Your dad held her back so I could tell them what you'd done. Then they both just cried."_

_Martha pressed her hand to her mouth, and her own control slipped. Rose reached out, gently brushing a tear from her cheek._

_"I talked to Tish for a long time," she said softly. "She's sweet, Tish. I told her she could call me anytime, if she needed to. She told me to tell you that she loved you, and she hoped you were taking care of yourself. She's got a job at a big company, as their PR representative."_

_"She'll be good at that," Martha said, wiping her face with trembling hands. "And Leo? Does Leo know?"_

_"Course he does. He sat with Tish for a long time. He loves you, Martha. They all do."_

_"Your mum cried," Martha said. "Your dad just looked shocked. I told them that you had to go, so the universe didn't split open, but it didn't help much."_

_She looked Rose in the eye. "I told her you loved them both, and you left so they could be safe."_

_Rose nodded, biting her lip. "I still love them. I miss them. How'd Mickey take it?"_

_"He did better, actually," she replied. "He asked me to tell you that he loved you, too, if I ever dreamed about you again. He said you were the best mate he'd ever had, and that he was going to miss you. He also said that you just wanted to one-up him, since he'd liberated seven continents from Cybermen."_

_"Sounds like him." Rose laughed, but her pain was evident. Without speaking, they leaned together, entwining their arms; they needed the touch of another._

_"Torchwood," Rose said, trying to change the subject. "You're working at Torchwood now?"_

_Martha nodded. "Your dad got me fixed up straight away. I'm starting a new job in a couple of weeks, now that I'm done studying."_

_"Where?"_

_"On their medical response team. They had me looking at alien scrub brushes and stuff before, hoping I'd recognize something. It was kind of irritating, but it paid the rent while I finished school. Your dad helped with that, too. They've been great, actually. Really great. I know I can't ever take your place, but they're taking care of me like I'm their daughter. It helps, you know?"_

_"Yeah, I do," Rose answered sadly. Martha shifted to look at her better._

_"Is he taking care of you?" she asked softly, clasping Rose's hand. "I mean, for me, your parents are doing all they can to help, and Mickey understands what it's like, so I've got people looking out for me. Are you okay?"_

_Rose drew a shuddering breath, trying not to cry. _

_"It's harder than I thought it would be," she admitted. "I wanted to go back to him for three years, and when it finally happened...well, losing them is just hard. But he understands better than anybody what it's like to lose your family. And he loves me, Martha. He really does. And that's good enough, you know? He's there whenever I need him, and he understands the bad days. I understand him better, now. But yeah, I'm okay. Having him there helps."_

_Martha smiled. "I'm glad."_

_"Martha, I never got to thank you properly. For...well, saving the universe. And sending me back to him. I never meant for you to get stuck here, I..."_

_"Don't, Rose. I don't regret a single thing. It's not easy, being a human Time Band-Aid, but I'm okay. Really. You would have done the same thing, and you know it."_

_"Yeah, I guess. I just know that it hurts, and I wish it didn't have to."_

_Martha shrugged. "You win some, you lose some. Rose, we did what we had to do, and we're both going to be okay."_

_"Yeah," Rose said, managing a smile. "I guess we are."_

_The crash of the waves filled the following silence, and the two of them searched for the words they knew they had to say. The link between them thrummed with consternation, and they broke into laughter._

_"I don't want to say goodbye," Rose laughed, reaching for Martha's other hand._

_"Neither do I. But you know how this works. If we stay too long..."_

_"Universal collapse, brain goes all muzzy, fall into the Void, I know. I just... I miss you, Martha. I know we didn't have that long, but..."_

_"I know. It's being alone in your head again. It's lonely."_

_"Yeah." Rose smiled at her. "And I think we count as pretty good friends. Don't we?"_

_"We'd better! Saving the universe together and all that. We're practically the Dynamic Duo." Martha held up her hand for a high-five, and Rose slapped her palm, laughing._

_"Hey, I have an idea," she said suddenly, lying flat on the sand. "Come on, lay down."_

_Martha lay beside her and Rose squeezed her hand._

_"It isn't goodbye. It's just good night."_

_Martha grinned broadly. "Good night, Rose."_

_"Good night, Martha."_

_They lay together on the beach, holding hands and giggling at inconsequential things, unwilling to let the other go. It was a long time before the dream faded._


End file.
